British chefs have been in a punchy mood this week, if you believe the media, who've been standing around the likes of Blumenthal, Ramsay and Wareing shouting 'Fight! Fight!'. Clearly it hasn't been a good week for Ramsay who has probably developing a fear of lists as we write this. Not only did Gordon fall off the Sunday Times Rich List, only to be replaced by Jamie Oliver, but he also lost his slot on the San Pellegrino Top 50 Restaurant List. Ramsay's Royal Hospital Road restaurant didn't make the top 100 unlike his former protegee and now arch enemy Marcus Wareing who just missed the main list, coming in at number 52. Still we're glad to see that Wareing didn't crow...much.
But surely the biggest news this week has to be that London's food lovers may no longer have to schlep all the way to rural Berkshire to enjoy the culinary genius that is the work of Heston Blumenthal. The Telegraph's Mandrake lets it slip in an almost casual aside that Heston is in negotiations with the Mandarin Oriental over opening a London restaurant. We'll keep you posted on any developments with this as they happen.
What we learned this week:
- Why Jamie Oliver isn't flavour of the month with Britain's ice-cream vans.
- That margarine is the work of the devil
- Despite the recession it's a soul-destroying work trying to book a table at a popular restaurant
- As we'd always suspected, doughnuts and custard tarts are actually good for you
- And finally, bring a hideous supermarket pizza into any chain of high-end pizzeria Rossopomodoro and you'll get a really nice one of theirs for free (until 8 May). Enjoy!
